New Kids in town *HF*
By Gomurr
NEW KIDS IN TOWN
BHC ACADEMY: 7:58 a.m.
The snow fell slowly on the Black Hellfire Academy, as the chill February wind tugged and pelted the small bundled figure striding quickly down the path and into the school. The figure was completely unrecognizable, but as the students looked down from the observation windows of the third floor classroom, they knew who was on the way. Moments later the door to the mid-sized room swung open and the figure quickly strode in. There was a muffled giggle followed by subdued shushing noises as figure made it's way to the coat rack. First tobaggan hat, then heavy scarf and finally thick down parka went to the hooks in the corner on flows of controlled air until Gomurr stood revealed.
"You'd think someone with elemental magic like him would just keep the weather off of him," Avalon whispered to Hav1, stifling a giggle. "Personally I think the old dude likes to trudge in like that so he can tell "when I was a kid" stories about going to school in the snow up hill both ways."
"And I'd think someone with as much potential as you, Avalon," Gomurr said his eyes narrowing on the Black Prince. "would understand that use of power always comes with a price and wasteful shows of ability help no one......unless of course it's to how do you constantly put it....'impress the chicks and make them think i'm a smack daddy'?"
There were giggles from around the room as Avalon's face blushed bright red. "How does he hear everything," said Av grumbling under his breath. "His hearing must be going...he's 803 for god's sake."
Gomurr simply grinned and began taking the roll while silently checking the magical weaves of air he had placed in the corners of the room to carry the slightest whisper to his ears.
"Mona Jenkins?" the ancient mage said scanning the room. "You are new to the academy. Please raise your hand."
"DE..mona, please," came an almost musical voice from the back of the room. "The Jenkins name was given to me for enrollment purposes in order to fill out the required paperwork. It's just Demona."
"Well just Demona," Gomurr said noting the girl's pale blue hair and pale complexion. "Welcome to the Black Hellfire Academy."
"Thank you sir," came the tinkling musical voice again.
Gomurr continued on down the list noting more new names. There were other new additions including a brash young girl calling herself Storm! of all things, despite the fact she had no elemental abilities. His thoughts continually returned to Demona however.
As he handed out that day's Latin quiz, he thumbed through Demona's bio. He noted that her power in essence was the ability to catalzye emotions in others and use the psionic energy produced by herself and others as an offensive and defensive weapon. This power was largely untested and its strength level and limits had never been gauged. He noted that both she and the new student Storm! were signed up for their initial evaluation session with him later that afternoon. His thoughts were interrupted by someone clearing a throat in the back of the room. He looked up to see Justin Mill, the DarkWolf swinging his hand back and forth frantically. When Gomurr met the boy's eyes he began to speak.
"Oh greatus headmasterus, I needeth to payeth the water billeth," he said amidst a chorus of giggles.
"Your Latin is getting very good, Mr. Mills," said Gomurr. "I'd hate to think you were bored with the slow rate of learning in this class, so after you finish the test...and paying the water bill of course, you can show me how well you know the ancient languages by helping me translate some passages from some books in my library......and PUMA please get your eyes back on your own paper"
The laughter ceased almost immediately as Justin Mills walked disgustedly to the door, and Gomurr went back to his studying of the new student's bios. When the bell rang to signal the end of class, all the students except the aforementioned DarkWolf grabbed their books and began hussling to the door. Gomurr listened to their youthfully exuberant conversation as they filed out.
"Hey, you......Demona, wasn't it?" said Sasha Cullen, the Puma. "That's a great color on your hair. Is that natural or locks in a box? Anyway...wanna grab some lunch and talk it over. I've been thinking about a change in hairstyles myself."
"No thank you," said Demona pleasantly, "I'd rather read in my room."
"WhatEVER," said Puma making the loser sign on her forehead. Demona didn't seem to notice.
"I'll go with ya if that's okay," said Storm! the other new recruit. "I could really go for some grub and some gab about now. What's up with the old midget teaching all the classes anyway?"
"Oh Gomurr.....he's a pretty okay guy, but I never said that if anybody asks. He may ride us pretty hard, but he's kept us out of more trouble than he's punished us for." said Puma "Great accent by the way. What is it?"
"French Mongrel," said Storm! laughing. "The name's Angela...Angela Flambeaux."
"I'm Sasha Cullen," said Puma. "Pleased to meet you."
"So tell me all about this place," said Storm! "If i'm gonna be hangin out here, I better know the ins and outs."
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GOMURR'S LIBRARY: 3:36 p.m.
Demona knocked timidly on Gomurr's door, running her fingers through her blue hair. She heard a voice telling her to enter and she did so. She stood before Gomurr in a soft blue sundress that almost perfectly matched her hair.
"Hello, Demona," said Gomurr. "Please sit down."
"Thank you, sir," said Demona and sat accordingly.
"I just want to ask you a few questions, regarding your life before you came to stay with us," said the ancient mage as he thumbed through her file. Father deceased..mother unknown. "How does that make you feel."
Demona smiled and began her reply. She had heard this question many times from too many psychologists to count.
"I really can't say as I feel much of anything for them. They both went...missing while I was still very young."
"That's a very pat answer," said Gomurr. "Since your time with us, do you feel that you have made any attachments to the people in this organization or school."
"I know the names of the other students, and feel my peer level interaction is more than adequate for a person of my age and gender." she said again giving him an indulgent smile as if speaking to a child who didn't understand something.
"Why did you snub Puma's invitation to lunch today," said Gomurr quickly straying from the pattern questions."
Demona's eyes caught his for an instant. "I did not mean to snub her. I merely said I preferred to read in my room than eat in the quad. If I have offended her I shall apologize immediately."
"No, no no," Gomurr said. "I'm sure she'll be fine. I was just wondering what motivated that answer. When you first arrived, I had you pegged as a classic example of...."
"Low self-esteem syndrome with a penchant for self-loathing and rage?" finished Demona.
This time it was Gomurr's turn to stumble. "Umm well yes," the old man said finally.
"I get that alot," said Demona. "but I do not nor have I ever felt sorry for myself. I simply feel that my time could have been better spent reading about the academy and my studies here than idly gossiping with Sasha."
Gomurr's eyes studied Demona closely and he began to speak again.
"Your file says you are an empathic emotion catalyst and rechanneler, is this right?" said Gomurr.
"A rather long winded description but close enough," said Demona. "In essence I can sense strong emotions in people and control the intensity of those emotions. Also by absorbing those emotions into myself I can trigger the same emotion in me and shape it into the form of telekinetic energy. Again I've explained this several times before, so don't think me rude for being so blunt."
"Of course not," said Gomurr. "Your file also indicates that your power works best when keyed into negative emotions such as rage or pain. Would you care to go through an exercise in your power with me."
"Well...sure," said Demona finally.
"Concentrate," said Gommur fixing one memory in his mind. "Close your eyes. Let your power see into my heart...into my mind. What do you see?"
Demona concentrated and a subtle green glow could be seen around her eyes. Gomurr felt like he was suddenly dipped in ice water as the girl's power sliced into his mind and found the memory that Gomurr had placed in the forefront.. Now it was time for the girl to gasp. Gomurr's memories of his former life as Merlin rolled through the telepathic link like a white hot flame. His memories of his first love Nymawe slid into Demona's mind like a tidal wave, and the girl's own abilities increased that emotion tenfold for every second they were linked. Gomurr struggled to break the link but the girl was too strong. She drew more and more of his emotion into herself. He stared into Demona's face.....a face he hardly recognized now. Where her features were once that of a normal caucasion girl, now there stared back a ghostly pale death's mask with glowing eyes of greenish blue. Suddenly Demona cried out and Gomurr realized he did too. A psionic eruption exploded between them and the ancient mage was thrown backwards against a wall. Demona sagged visibly in her chair gasping for breath.
"Never......felt so much hope...so much love....too much...yet I wanted more. How did you live needing somebody so much," she breathed and then passed out.
Gomurr sat in the corner holding his side. He felt carefully. He thought to himself that maybe a rib was broken. He was definitely getting too old for this sort of risk, but he had to get through to the girl, if she was every going to be able to bond with the other students. He slowly picked himself up and shuffled to the phone, just as Havok and Silver rushed into the room.
"What happened?" said Silver. "Are you all right?
"Was it an attack?" put in Havok morphing his hands into claws. "Where did they go?"
"I'm afraid," Gomurr wheezed. "It was just an old man's foolishness and a young girl's pride clashing with rather explosive results. Now could you please help Demona to the med lab."
"What about you?" said Silver helping Gomurr to his feet.
"I'll be fine," said the old mage. "I've taken worse kicks than that in my day. Why during the Mongrel wars, I had to hold off an entire legion of invading......."
Silver guided the ancient mage to the medlab with a hand on his diminutive shoulder as he recounted his days of glory in times long past.
"Well let's just get you checked out anyway," said Silver to Gomurr with a small smirk towards Havok. The Black Warlord smiled back with Demona unconscious in his arms and the strange looking quartet made their way to the med-lab.
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GOMURR'S OFFICE AT THE BHC ACADEMY: 8:15 p.m.
A quick knock on the door awoke Gomurr from his late afternoon cat nap. Apparently the sedative that he had been given was doing it's job. He straightened quickly and groaned as he fingered the ribs that had been bruised earlier in the day. The ancient mage hurriedly rubbed his eyes and wondered if he had "sleep marks" on his cheek. Angela Flambeaux entered from the hallway, without so much as waiting for an invitation to enter. She strode confidently in wearing a pair of ice camoflauge pants and vest with a matching sports bra underneath. Her outfit was completed with a pair of black shiny army boots. Young Ms. Flambeaux tossed herself in the chair across from Gomurr's desk and immediately placed her feet on the antique lacquer table in front of her.
"So what's the haps, Gom-man," she said. "You said you wanted to see me, and here on my little things to do today list, it says initial evaluation period."
Gomurr grimaced as the heels of her boots dug into the ancient wood of the coffee table that was well over 100 years old. "It's just an informal interview to evaluate your abilities and attitudes towards various things. In addition there are some issues concerning your activities before joining the organization...in particular of your parent......"
"Cool then," Storm! interrupted pulling her shoulder length brown hair into a pony tail. "Then I'm dressed for the part. Let's get going. You wanna see what I can do....see if I can cut it in the big leagues. Let's go. Last one to the gym is a rotten egg."
"Very well," said Gomurr a bit puzzled as he rose to follow the bouncy young girl out.
When they reached the gym, Havok the Black Warlord lounged casually on the bleachers. At their approach he stood. Storm noted his handsome face and blonde hair.
"Woah," she said. "Starting me out with the big league pretty boy. You guys don't believe in playing around...do ya?"
"This exercise is merely to gauge your abilities, Ms. Flambeaux," Gomurr said. "You needn't worry about any harm coming to yourself or Mr. Breslin. This room is specifically desinged to safeguard against injury to combatants in simulated combat."
Havok approached the girl and stuck out his hand. "Hi, my name's Mike," he said.
Before he could go on, Storm! grasped his hand, twisted and flipped him over her back and on to the padded mat floor. He rolled with the fall and was up on his feet in an instant, strangely smiling. The two circled each other like animals in a duel. Oddly Gomurr began to speak.
"Your personal information seems pretty scarce, Ms. Flambeaux," he said. "No listed parentage. Another product of an orphanage. What's a nice young lady like you doing parentless?"
The duel on the floor continued as Gomurr watched on, his nose buried in the file. Havok rushed toward Storm! with a fierce upper cut. She dodged, striking him with a hard chop in the kidneys. Gomurr grimaced in sympathy pains. Storm! smiled and the two began circling again.
"Yeah," said Storm! with her full concentration still on her opponent. "I was raised if you could call it that in an orphanage, but I've done pretty well for myself. I mean look at me now....I got this phat house and this great gig. What more could a girl ask for."
Havok dodged a hammer blow from Storm! and spun behind her, grabbing her around the waist and pinning her arms to her side.
"You can give up anytime you like, Ms. Flambeaux," Gomurr said, "Or if you need some help I could lend a hand."
Storm! rocketed her head back catching Havok in the teeth with the her skull. He lost his grip for a minute and she was free. Her moves were like poetry in motion. Her body was a musical composition of style and deadly grace.
"Dont do me any favors, Teach," she said. "I've never needed any help before and I dont need any now."
Havok spun and dropped his leg sweeping Storm!'s feet from beneath her. Instead of falling away as the kick took her off her feet, she rolled between Havok's legs and struck him in the back with the toe of her boot as she passed. Havok stumbled forward and spun around again.
"It's strange," continued Gomurr, "that one so adept at making friends like you seem to have done with the rest of the students here, would have very little background in the way of intersocial development."
"You learn to get by, sir," she said now beginning to breathe heavily. "Let people think they are getting what they want and then you're free to do whatever else you want and nobody to answer to you but yourself."
"Are you sure you wouldn't like a bit of help, Storm!," said Gomurr nonchalantly.
"Look, you old gnome," she said dodging another of Havok's attacks. "I've got it under control. I don't need your help or anybody's."
Havok's strong hands began to morph into claws and just as quickly Storm!'s hands went to the pockets of her cargo pants and she had three short throwing daggers between the fingers of each hand. At this Gomurr, picked up a cellular phone and gave a few silent orders into it.
"No fancy mutant powers here, handsome," Storm! said as she readied herself. "Just good American steel."
Gomurr noted the conversation and looked at his hand held scanning unit hidden within the file. It was true that Angela Flambeaux had no outward mutation, but the endorphin and adrenaline levels she was pushing through her system would have killed most people, but she seemed only slightly agitated. Maybe she wasn't an alpha class mutant, but she was much more than human.
Storm! tossed two daggers and Havok dove and rolled to avoid them, releasing a low level cosmic blast at his opponent. Storm! narrowly avoided it and let loose two more daggers which Havok deflected just in time with a tiny stream of cosmic energy melting them in mid-air.
"It appears you are as good as you claim, Ms. Flambeaux," said Gomurr, "Let's up the difficulty level."
The ancient mage levitated from his seat invisible to those around him and then reappeared behind the struggling Storm!. As he floated unknown behind her, he raised his bo staff to deliver a knock out blow. Just as he was about to release the attack, he was struck from behind by a glowing blast of psionic energy courtesy of Demona who had just entered the room. Gomurr fell to the floor holding his head and Havok and Storm! stopped in mid-battle staring at the latest participant in their little game.
"Good....good," said Gomurr quietly still rubbing his head. "You've passed your first test, Demona. You were thrust into a battle scenario and you acted quickly and decisively in defense of a comrade."
"You sent for me, headmaster...and I came," said the beautiful blue haired Demona, her skin only now beginning to take on a more normal appearance. "I only did what was right. The battle was unfair with you and the other man both against Storm!"
Gomurr simply grinned.
"Well thanks for the save," Storm! quipped. "I guess I passed my first test too, huh Gom. Every needs a hand from time to time. That was the point. Am I right?"
Gomurr grinned again, but Storm! continued to speak.
"Oh...guys and thanks. I've been in the game long enough to know when someone's holding back. You could have flattened me from the beginning of this little test, but don't think I still don't have a few tricks you haven't seen today."
With a wink, Storm! turned to go, putting her arm around Demona on the way out.
"C'mon kid," said Storm. "There's a great big world out there. Let's see what we can see together."
"I think that might be....nice," said Demona and then they were gone.
Havok helped Gomur to his feet and the two followed the newest students of the BHC academy out the door.
Greg
TBk
runner up for a buncha things 2000
"If video games affected people, wouldn't all of the Pac Man kids from the 80's be running around in the dark, eating pills, and listening to elctronic music?"
- Unknown